Feds hope to cut sepsis deaths by hitching Medicare payments to treatment stats

Sepsis, the body’s extreme response to an infection, affects 1.7 million adults in the United States annually. It stems from fungal, viral, or bacterial infections. Treatment delays of even a few hours can undermine a patient’s chance of survival. Yet sepsis can be difficult to diagnose because some patients don’t present with common symptoms like fever, rapid heart rate, or confusion.